Job 6:15

My companions betray me as a wadi (desert stream),

   Like the channel of a brook run dry.

I learned what a wadi was when I studied this passage. Not something we see much of in Houston, but out where I grew up, the term could have been in wide usage. Kind of like Ukraine. It is a term you may have heard of, but not everyone knows what it really is. Apparently, the Ukraine is full of natural resources and that is why Putin wants to steal it from the people who live there. There was a headline in the news that Putin will probably wish he had stolen Ukraine when our last president was in office, but I think we all know this one is not much of a deterrent. The concept of a wadi should be a strong reason not to get lost in the desert. Expecting help and not getting it is worse than not expecting it in the first place.

“Companions” was only used once, but won out over ”brothers”, “brethren”, “comrades”, and “friends”. As noted before, these guys were not Job’s true friends. “Betray me” was selected rather than “are treacherous”, “are undependable”, “have dealt deceitfully”, “are fickle” (really?), and “failed me”. Again, the expectation was that Job would get some comfort from their coming to visit. “Wadi” was picked instead of “torrent-bed”, “intermittent streams”, “a brook”, “a riverbed”, and “desert stream”. I obviously included “desert stream” for those that do not know “wadi” and would not be looking it up. “Brook” and “river” do not carry the come and go nature of a wadi, and “intermittent stream” and “torrent-bed” do not carry the false hope of the “wadi”.

The second stitch followed my second favorite source and eliminates a word I still do not understand: “freshet”. “Run dry” was also suggested as “passes away”, “overflow”, “once ran”, and “wandered off”. I did like wandered off and the randomness of it, but it was a little too poetic for me. “Channel of a brook” could have been “freshet”, “stream”, “stream bed”, “wadi” (again), or “streams of brooks”. (Freshet is a stream from a snow melt or upstream rain, more or less.) “Stream” seemed too regular (as compared to a brook), “wadi” would have been repetitive and not in an additive manner, “stream bed” too like stream, and “streams of brooks” just unclear with repetition of a similar term. “Freshet” is probably not too far off, but describes the flow and not the ground.

Without going into too much detail covered in the following verses, the idea is that Job’s peers have not come to be friends, but to provide the illusion of help and really provide nothing as if one was lost in the desert and came upon a stream bed only to find it empty.

The people of Ukraine have used their freedom from the Soviet Union to better themselves and their country and they wanted the rest of Europe and the United States to keep Russia from taking that from them. Job sees his peers and hopes they can offer some aid. But apparently the hot air from his companions helped Job not at all. If I had a son of military aid, I might not want him to go fight Russia over Ukraine with the current political leadership in our country. Taiwan is probably not too happy right now either. The history of the world is full of bullies taking from others and kicking the needy when they are defenseless. Our only hope is Jesus, and the fulfillment of that hope is not in this world. But as with verse 14, if we put our hope in people, God is not our correct priority.